I am bleary-eyed, exhausted, and most definitely feeling too old to do this any more. I want to give up.But then I hear the voice of Truth speaking to my heart:

I know it's hard; but you have been called.

I know it's hard; but I created you to serve the least of these, so I will give you strength to keep going.

~~~~~And He has indeed provided that strength, and for that, I am grateful. There is no sweeter feeling of joy than knowing you are being used of God to provide life-giving care to one of His precious souls. In less than a week, she will meet her forever family, and I will once again feel extreme sadness and grief as I let another one of our precious foster babies go and adjust to her not being near me at all times.

Is it hard? Yes. Is it worth it? Unequivocally, yes.

“Let these children alone. Don’t get between them and me. These children are the kingdom’s pride and joy." Luke 18:16

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Last night I read one of our favorite books
to my daughter Abbey entitled, "A
Book" by Mordicai Gerstein. It is the story of a little girl who
realizes she is a character in a book, but doesn't know what her story
is. So she goes off in search of her story, trying to figure out if she
is in a mystery, a historical novel, a science fiction story, a fairy tale,
etc. etc. I won't spoil the ending for you, but rest assured, she does
indeed figure out her own, unique story.

I love "A Book," because it reminds me so much of myself; really, of
all of us. We all begin our lives without knowing the plot. Only the Author of
our lives really knows how it will play out in the end. But we all search for our
own unique story, wanting to discover into which "genre" it will fit,
who the main characters will be, what the climax and the solutions, and
especially what the ending entails.

My own story certainly has not
played out exactly the way I "wrote" it in my mind when I was a
little girl...

~Sexually abused as a four-year old.

~Forced to move so many times, I attended eight
different schools before I graduated from high school.

~Failed at two marriages.

~Developed chronic pain from stupid diseases inside my body.

No, none of those subplots were in my story. But something happened along
the way, along the pages of my book.

~I found myself in the arms of Jesus when I was a terrified four-year old at the mercy of a
monster.

~I developed a high
level of tolerance and acceptance for all types of people that many never know because of having lived so manydifferent places and from having attended so many schools.
Life-long friendships were developed that miles have never been able to
separate.

~I failed miserably at being a young, married person...and this is one of the hardest stories of my life to understand. But I have learned that
emotional baggage weighs more than a piece of Samsonite.

~I have compassion and empathy for chronic pain sufferers that I would have never had if I had not developed this disease. And more importantly, it has allowed me to model strength through
adversity to my own children.

The events of my story have
shaped me into a victor, not a victim. It is a story that has often brought a sense of failure and discouragement but as my life proceeds,
I see more and more clearly all that yet remains to be done. And I am learning
to look for the good in every situation and to seek out grace and mercy from the ordinary and
not-so-ordinary lines of my story.

"But the vessel
that he was forming didn't turn out as he wished, so he kneaded it into a lump
and started again." Jeremiah 18:4

Isn't that a great verse?

He is allowing me to be a new vessel, still
worthy of being used to help others. Despite my past; the settings, the
characters, the pain of my life story, God has kneaded me down to a lump of
clay and is remolding me and now using me for good.

And I am pretty sure that my beautiful family
is proof that God is my loving Author and wants the rest of my story to be a
‘dram-edy’ with lots of laughing and some serious stuff thrown in to keep me
relying on Him.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

I have awful teeth. When I was in in my twenties, I had a
dentist tell me I had the teeth of a 90-yr old woman.[Grrrreat.]I recentlyspent ten days in
acute pain from a having a tooth pulled. I thought the area would be sore, but
I had NO idea I would still be hurting so many days later.
Anbesol and pain meds were my constant companions.

When I went back to the dentist after so many days of pain to complain about
how slow the healing was, how nauseated I had been and to see if I
was feeling "normal" things, he examined the extraction site and
said, "Hmmm...it's not filling in the way it should so you have a bad
infection." [Grrrreat.] Some powerful antibiotics and a few days of
rest later, I finally started feeling better.

Extractions from our souls leave a hole that has to be
filled in as well.

Spiritually dry sockets can be devastating to our
progress, our growth. Have you ever experienced a spiritual breakthrough?
We get all excited because we are finally taking that crucial step of
ridding our souls of the bitterness/anger/unforgiveness/insecurities/pain that consumed so
much our lives, but we often fail to realize or follow through with the next step:

If we don't take time daily to "fill in" our
soul sockets with love

or wisdom

or gentleness

or self-control

or peace

or the Word...we risk infection.

We risk infiltration---from that very Enemy we
have just fought so hard to banish. And, rest assured, he and his ugly,
seething minions are waiting to jump right back in that hole and keep us in
pain. We have to be extremely diligent to be aware of this awful truth.

The momentary heights are very important, but it's the
daily strivings towards sanctification that count towards keeping our souls filled with the right
medicine.

" ...Indeed, if you call out for insight and
cry aloud for understanding...wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge
will be pleasant to your soul." Proverbs 2: 3,10

Tonight I am thankful for *a snoring husband, for that means he is a hard working man and is here with me, *chocolate cake, because that means I have wonderful neighbors who always share with me, *chronic pain, because it forces me to my knees on days when I might get complacent with life, and *scattered toys in my den, for it means I have precious children in my life who keep me from taking myself or my house too seriously. ☺☺☺

Whatever happens, give thanks, because it is God’s will in Christ Jesus that you do this. 1 Thess 5:18

As many of you know, we started our foreign language journey
in 3rd grade with Latin. I
chose Latin, not because we are of the classical-teaching mindset, but because I
really wanted Abbey to have a great foundation of the English Language and
Latin is a great means to that end.

But this year, her 4th grade year, I decided to go in a bit of a different direction and teach her Spanish. I had taken two years
of Spanish in high school and really loved it, and I knew that the Latin-to-Spanish transition would be smooth. They
are such similar languages.

After much shopping around for a Spanish language course, we
decided upon a great and affordable curriculum called Spanish for You! Debbie Annett, the author of the curriculum,
has taught Spanish in homeschool co-op classes for many years, so she knows
what works. This curriculum is easy to
use and has some really neat features.

Free
bonus audio of the entire book recorded by a native speaker from Mexico.

Free set
of flashcard pictures for making flashcards and other activity materials.

There are so many ideas given by author Debbie Annett to use
this program with multiple grade levels, co-op groups, or like us, just a one-on-one pair. The curriculum is extremely user-friendly and has a TON of ideas to keep it fresh and exciting. We are having a
lot of fun with it!

We are going very slowly, as I really want Abbey to absorb
the information, instead of just covering it for the sake of saying we covered
it. We have worked our way through three
pages of mandatos (commands) and three lessons of vocabulario
(vocabulary). This past week, we started conjugation. Spanish for You! emphasizes reading, listening, speaking and
writing the words and commands so that it really sinks in. It also encourages you to take your time, as we are doing, and move at your own pace.

One of the greatest features of this
curriculum—you receive an mp3-audio of every word and command in the
lesson. Listen with your child(ren); pay
attention to the pronunciation; have your child repeat the word. It is such an important part of the learning
to make sure you are saying the word correctly and hearing it pronounced most
definitely helps. I would have loved this option when we were learning Latin
last year. My one and only complaint
about this program is that the amount of time allowed for the student to repeat
the word is not long enough. Abbey has
to take a moment to process what she just heard, and the amount of time allowed
on the audio before the next word is being
pronounced is not quite enough for her.

Abbey loves Spanish for You!
She has done so many things, on her own initiative, to have fun with the
words. One day after school, I saw her
packing up her little back pack with her Spanish flashcards to go outside. I was like “Honey, what are you doing with
those?” She said, “I’m going to quiz my
friends!” And out the door she skipped, ready to ask any and every kid in the
neighborhood what the Spanish word for “presents” is.

This past week she decided we should take all the noun
flashcards and tape them to their appropriate item in the house. After reading them for a week, I can quiz her
on any of those nouns now (I say the Spanish word) and she knows them like “boom!”

the candy

the food

the song and the music

Not sure if you want to invest in a Spanish language program
yet? Debbie Annett and Spanish for You! have
made available free mini-lessons, 4- and 6-week trial versions of each of the sets
for you to try. She even has free worksheets available on her website to use with any current Spanish program you
may be using.

Details: Spanish For You! can be purchased in many different
sets ranging from $9.99 for the trial package, to $64.95 for the Grades 3 - 8
package. There are different sets and configurations available. I encourage you
to check it out for yourself here.

Recommended Ages: Grades 3 to 8, but if you have an advanced
learner, start earlier.And if you have a high school student that wants a
user-friendly Spanish program, chose this one!

Disclaimer: I
received a free set of the Spanish for You! Fiestas program to use with my child in exchange for
my honest review. No other compensation was given.